'I Only Watch Rugby for The Boys’ focuses on the glorification of the athletic male form in sport, through drawings depicting moments of action on the pitch Mullins aimed to homoeroticise the patriarchal aggression performed on the rugby pitch. Through expressive large scale drawings of players mid action running or caught during a tackle Mullins’ reframes the sport with sexual tension, questioning the gaze of the audience of the incredibly intimate sport. Sketches of Scrums and its players wrapped in each other’s bodies Mullins brings a queer perspective that is often overlooked in sport. Reframing the physicality as sexual expression and capturing bulging muscles covered in mud.
Mullins’ was inspired by the aggressive homosexual eroticism present in the sketches of Tom of Finland juxtaposed with the underlying sexual tension and male anatomical worship seen in Leyendecker Arrow collar advertisements. With a fascination in underlying homoeroticism that blossomed through Patrick Mullins’ exploration of cruising culture in his studies, he wanted to dissect more complex environments of hidden sexuality, where homoeroticism hides just under the surface. The drawings frame the body as the subject, often with bodies cut off at the head making each figure almost anonymous, their identity not the focus, but rather their physical prowess and their movement. Taking up the space with thighs and biceps their musculature takes center stage and objectifies their bodies whilst close up faces offer a soft intimacy that contrasts the aggressive and overt sexuality otherwise present, romanticizing rugby and bringing it away from the hard cold image it is often portrayed as.
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